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Minority Rohingya under Total Blockade in Rathedaung

RB News

August 5, 2017

Rathedaung – A minority
Rohingya community has been completely blockaded by the Myanmar State-backed
Rakhine extremists in Rathedaung Township since Tuesday (Aug 1).

The blockade on the small group of people -- with some
80-above households and a population of 650 at the village of ‘Zaydi Pyin’ is surrounded
now-turned hostile Rakhine villages – has been imposed in order to expel them
from their ancestral homeland, locals believe.

AS their access to forests and rivers are cut; and the
roads are blocked with barbed wire fences erected by the government-backed extremists;
and hence, restricting their movement and sealing them off within their small
village, the villagers are now on the verge of starvation and seeking
international help to get them out of a looming man-made catastrophe.

“The main reason
behind such a blockade is to make them starve and die; and eventually force
them to leave their homes once and for all. So, the Myanmar government can tell
the world that the Rohingyas are leaving their homes on their own.

“As planned by the authorities and the extremists, the
Zaydi Pyin villagers are already crying out for help in order to get them out
of the siege. They are willing to leave homes on their own out of extreme fear
as the blockade continues and more and more Rakhine extremists from other
townships are amassing in their surroundings,” said U Soe Win, a human rights
observer based in Rathedaung.

The regional authorities, the military and the police have
turned a blind eye to the plight of the ‘Zaydi Pyin’ villagers and let the
blockade continue although many local Rohingyas are said to have communicated
with them.